Nonetheless, it was still a learning experience! One day I'll get it right, but until then it doesn't hurt to keep trying it out and learning new things:
The set of shots from the evening's experimentation can be seen on Flickr here: Oakamoor Skies
Earlier this month, a rare Sunday without a Phoenix game gave Yol and myself the chance to go out in the car and pay a visit to a historical site, and after a quick consultation of the interwebs we chose Beeston Castle in Cheshire, an English Heritage site. The castle itself consists of the remnants of fortifications on top of a hill, with a circumference nature walk to stretch the legs and fill the lungs. As a place to visit, it's great for those who enjoy a little piece of history!
The weather wasn't perfect, but even under cloudy skies it was still a cracking place to visit! The full set of shots from our visit can be seen on Flickr here: Beeston Castle
This past Saturday saw the car being loaded up with filming equipment to head out to Tatenhill Airfield for the shooting of Vicki Smart's documentary "Tatenhill". With three location recces done in advance, pretty much every eventuality had been planned for, and the big day had arrived!
The shoot itself was set at Tatenhill Airfield, but it took place in several locations around the airfield thanks to the generosity of the pilots and staff who graciously allowed the filming to go ahead in the briefing room, in the hangar, on the grass verge, in the tower, and even in the air! All five members of the production crew (myself included) were invited to take to the air to get footage, opportunities that we all readily took up!
During the shoot, we were able to get close to a plane that I fell for when we did our first location recce at the airfield, the Antonov AN-2. This time around it was cameraman Danyl Rathband who was shooting it, and naturally I was on hand to take the production stills:
The full set of production stills from the Tatenhill shoot can be seen on Flickr here: Tatenhill Shoot
The second film shoot was one that my involvement in was a lot less planned in advance. A few weeks back I'd been chatting with Dan Barlow, one of the Media Production students, who was in pre-production for an experimental documentary piece called 'Crushed Ice', the topic of which is what's known as 'bar flair'. Think of Tom Cruise throwing shakers and bottles around in the film 'Cocktail' and you get the idea. Anyway, the shoot was today, and this morning Dan popped in to ask if I'd be able to take some stills for the shoot, even though it was a working day. So inbetween my other work duties, I popped in several times to see how the shoot was going, and to take some stills behind the scenes:
The shoot features the bar flair talents of Tom Dyer, an internationally renowned exponent of his art, and he was performing in front of a backdrop made up of carefully lit bottles and cocktail props:
The job of the Production Stills photographer is to document what's happening behind the camera as well as in front of it, which means getting shots of as many of the crew in action as possible:
The behind-the-scenes stuff is always the best stuff to shoot for me, as it's the least 'contrived' - what happens in front of the camera is normally deliberate, so for me you get a better sense of the 'reality' of a shoot by looking at the people behind the camera! But you still can't beat a good Crew Shot!:
The full set from the 'Crushed Ice' shoot can be seen on Flickr here; Crushed Ice Shoot
All the way through this, I've been carrying out my usual duties as Match Night Photographer for Manchester Phoenix ice hockey club, it's something that I always enjoy and look forward to, whether we win or lose!
One of the Phoenix evenings that I covered was the All-Star night, which included marks being awarded for the most unusual goal celebration, and I'll leave you with these two - make of them what you will! Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you: The Weight Bench, and The Toilet!
No comments:
Post a Comment